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A London jury has found Russell Brand guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault. The 51-year-old was taken into custody immediately after the verdicts, and the judge told him to expect a lengthy prison sentence.
The verdict, delivered at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, 5 November 2026, closes the courtroom chapter of a case that began with a joint media investigation in September 2023. But the story is not over: Brand will be sentenced on Monday, 9 November, and police say inquiries into allegations by two further women remain ongoing.
What the Jury Decided
Brand faced seven charges involving six women, over alleged incidents between 1999 and 2009. After about eight and a half hours of deliberation over two days, the jury convicted him on four counts and cleared him on three.
He was found guilty of one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault. He was acquitted of two further counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. The Metropolitan Police said its investigation gathered evidence from more than 100 witnesses, took over 400 witness statements and reviewed more than 1,400 documents. The split verdict shows the jury weighed each allegation on its own evidence rather than treating the case as a single question about Brand’s character.
The Four Convictions in Detail
The Metropolitan Police said the offences took place between 2004 and 2009 and involved four women. The rape conviction relates to a 21-year-old fan Brand met after a stand-up show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2009.
The three sexual assault convictions cover a woman groped at a party in a Soho bar in 2004, a woman assaulted at the Choice FM radio studios in London in 2004 or 2005, and a woman working on a Channel 4 project who was assaulted during a forced massage in 2009. The six women in the case are entitled to lifelong anonymity under UK law, so their names have not been reported.
Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones KC had told the jury that Brand was a “ruthless, calculating, manipulative” sexual predator. Brand denied all the charges, telling the court that his sexual encounters were consensual, while acknowledging that he had been “sex-obsessed” when he was younger. His wife, Laura Gallacher, was in the public gallery when the verdicts were read out.
How the Case Reached Court
The case began in September 2023, when Channel 4’s Dispatches, The Sunday Times and The Times published a joint investigation into allegations against Brand. Police opened an investigation within days, and charges followed in April and December 2025.
The trial began at Southwark Crown Court on 12 October 2026. Prosecutors said the charges covered the years in which Brand rose from performing stand-up comedy in small venues to becoming a television presenter and a Hollywood film star.
What Happens Next
Brand will be sentenced at the same court on Monday, 9 November. Judge Mr Justice Joel Bennathan told him he faced a “lengthy prison term” and a “significant custodial term” before remanding him in custody. In England and Wales, a rape conviction carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, with sentencing guidelines listing an offence range of four to 19 years in custody.
Police also say their investigation into allegations by two further women remains ongoing, with files submitted to prosecutors — so the story may not end with Monday’s sentencing.
Whatever sentence is handed down, the verdict itself is already a defining moment: a jury, after hearing weeks of evidence, believed four of the six women who came forward — and acquitted Brand on the other three counts. The full picture will only emerge when the judge explains his sentence on Monday.
More from Global Insight: Joshua Wong was sentenced to 10 more years in prison, and France braced for nationwide strikes the same day. Sources: Metropolitan Police and Al Jazeera.